Mr. Fantastic
Biography Pre-Accident The second child of William and Melanie Matthews, Paul Matthews was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon. While his parents lived in Portland, and his older brother James Matthews was born there, Paul was born in Klamath Falls as his family was there on vacation. He showed incredible aptitude in his early school years, seemingly bored in his classes, which was translated into goofing off. It took a principal who took an interest in him to understand his genius and inform his parents. His parents, already aware of his intelligence had been looking into various schools for gifted children that they could put him into. Their older son, James Matthews, was not at the same level as his younger brother, the beginning of the animosity between the two brothers, generated more on James Matthews' side. Paul Matthews was doing college level work at the age of 12. By the time he reached 18, he applied to a university, the same that his brother was at, wanting as normal of a college life as he could get. It was there that he met Emma Matthews, and her younger sister and brother. The classic case of the nerd, Paul fell in love with Emma at sight. He also got tongue tied, unable to express how he felt. His brother, who also met Emma at the same time he did, was attracted to her as well. He, being more social than his younger brother, was able to get her to go out with him, probably the only one of two things that Paul actually hates his brother for. The other would come years later. When James Matthews set about staffing the research team he was creating he was smart enough to ask his brother, especially when he knew he would be able to spin his brother's successes into his own. During this time, Paul also worked for a company called General Electronics LTD, as one of their key designers. The company's current CEO was a family friend and Paul did it to help keep the company afloat, bringing a lot of valuable patents to the company in his time there. It was one of his first solo projects, and something that over time would convince him that he could lead and be successful without his older brother. As the team's list of accomplishments grew, their financial situation expanded and James Matthews was able to get them out of the small research area they were in, and into a much grander building. It involved however, a move to Metropolis, the fabled home of the Daily Planet and Superman. At that point James proposed to Emma and she accepted. Complications with projects and James' general nature would keep them at the engagement stage for over two years. The Accident It will always be contested who caused the Energy Recapture Experiment to fail, most especially by the two Matthews brothers. The full blame should fall upon the shoulders of James Matthews, though to James, the blame falls solely upon his younger brother. The experiment would have drastic effects upon the six who participated in it. Some time back, Paul came up with a theory. Using sophisticated equipment, they could recreate the flare that caused the original Fantastic Four's creation. Utilizing this, and the suit of the former Mr. Fantastic, they could, theoretically, harness the energy trapped in the suit. It would be a renewable source of energy, one that could help power the world. He saw the experiment as a way to help people. His brother saw the experiment as a way to increase the group's financial standing and his own personal fame. James and Paul began to work on the formula together. The exact cause of the problem would never fully be found, but there was a flaw in the formula. When the experiment began, covered by the media, there was a chain reaction and the flare could not be contained. As before, each member of the team was given amazing, or in this case, fantastic powers. During the experiment's failure, James Matthews was thrown from the building and sent hurtling miles away. Post-Accident James Matthews was given up for dead, after a city and state wide manhunt failed to locate him, though the manhunt would continue on in some part for some time. The rest of the research team was confined to a hospital where their wounds were treated. Also at this point, they discovered their powers. Paul, who had taken the blast directly after the flare had escaped from the containment area, was given the ability to stretch along with all of the same powers as the original Mr. Fantastic. He was able to do things such as expand his lungs' air capacity, or to scrunch himself up to fit inside of a computer. When he found out about her powers, Paul immediately wished to conduct tests on himself. He reasoned that if he'd gotten powers, it was possible that the rest of the team had gotten powers as well. He realized, once she was over the personal shock, the drastic changes that would be soon in coming to her own and her friends lives. He helped Emma, Carly, and Jimmy deal with their own new powers. When they were released from the hospital, He and the rest of the team moved into the Cascade Building, given to them by an anonymous donor. The Cascade Building is fully owned and controlled by Fantastic Five Inc., and would provid the group with a guaranteed source of income through the rent of the building, and in addition, a testing ground for some of the consumer products that they would design and build. The Formation Begins At the Cascade Building, Paul administered a series of tests on the rest of the group, to help them fully understand their powers. During tests on Carly, the woman came up with the idea of resurrecting the old Fantastic Four. Obviously, they'd be known as the Fantastic Five, due to the presence of five, not four. While they were in the hospital and in the Cascade Building, a city wide and state wide manhunt was undertaken to find the whereabouts of James. During this time, Nicolas Leiter left the group for personal reasons. While all of this was going on, Emma went through a personal crisis. She was engaged to James Matthews, but she'd never stopped loving Paul. Now James was gone, and Paul was stepping up to the plate as the group's leader and spokesperson. She was forced to address her feelings for the two brothers. She realized that while she cared for James Matthews, it had more to do with caring for his wellbeing than love or anything like it. Deep down inside, she'd harbored the general neutrality towards him that her brother and sister felt. She would never understand Paul's animosity and outright hatred for his older brother. Paul would never tell her till much later why he hated his brother so much, choosing to keep the reasons private. It was one of the few secrets that he had, and one that he wanted to hold onto dearly. She did realize as well that she'd only dated James Matthews in order to stay close to Paul. Comming to terms with her feelings meant for Emma that she had to act on them. So she told Paul how she felt. Paul was stunned. He'd fallen in love with her the first moment he'd seen her, back in college. Now she was coming forward and telling him that all these years she'd been in love with him. He didn't know what to do, and anger was the first thing that came to the surface. He was unsure of how to deal with his feelings and he pushed her away. Emma on the other hand, thought that she'd made a fool of herself, had ruined the rebuilding of their group, and more importantly, would never be able to have Paul. However, Paul had come to terms with what she'd told him and wouldn't think of letting her go. He went to her and told her that he felt about her the same way that she felt about him, and had felt that way for some time. She moved into his room, and would remain there for the next few months, until James Matthews returned. Stumbling Blocks James Matthews returned when the F5 Family least expected it. It had been a normal day for them, except that Knubbly had stolen Paul's rubber ducky, and Emma was attempting to get it back from him. James had somehow managed to get past the security of the Cascade Building without being noticed, and up past the normal, domestic levels of the building to the Fantastic Five apartment. He had made his way to the lab and questioned someone who he thought was Paul. As it turned out, it was really a holographic representation of Paul, an experiment that the other had been working on. He was moving through the hallways when Knubblechen Prime and Emma found him. Paul was up on the roof, waiting for Emma to arrive with Knubbly so that he could properly question the creature as to where he had secreted away his rubber ducky. However, Carly came up and told him that James Matthews had arrived. Paul was surprised, not that his brother was still alive, that he had figured was always a truth, but that their manhunt hadn't found him first. He knew that he didn't want to really talk with his brother, but that he would have to eventually. He had a feeling that James had an ulterior motive for just showing up. He also had a feeling that James would leave soon. So he decided to stay put up on the roof of the Cascade Building, not trusting himself with what he would say to James. Unfortunately, before he could fully deal with his inner emotions, James made his way up to the roof and found him. He confronted his brother, accusing him of stealing the team, and Emma from him. Paul denied the allegations, and expressed some modicum of concern regarding his brother's wellbeing. But James kept accusing him. Paul finally snapped and stood up to his brother. He surprised his brother, who decided that being with Emma had done at least one good thing for Paul. After they spoke, James headed down to find Emma. Paul stayed up on the roof, deciding that he would stay up until he cooled off. He didn't want this argument and James' presence to disrupt what was slowly becoming a family unit. He didn't know that his presence was already doing just that. Hours later, he came down and decided to talk about what was going on with Emma. However, he found that she wasn't in the bedroom that they shared. He walked around the apartment until he found Carly. He asked her where Emma was and Carly told him that she was in James' room. Annoyed that James' already had a room, he went there and realized that Emma had left him for James already in the short time that his brother had come home. Angered beyond words, he went to his room to sleep. But sleep evaded him. Fallout Paul realized that he didn't want to play second fiddle to James anymore. He'd had a taste of being in charge and while it hadn't gone to his head, he'd seen it as a breath of fresh air. No longer had he had his older brother hovering over him, taking credit for a lot of his work and most importantly, being with the woman that he loved. But now, James was back. Emma had left him almost immediately for him, and Paul knew that after having what he'd wanted he couldn't go back to not having it, especially if he had to give it up to James and deal with his older brother again. So he decided to leave. He packed his things and prepared to leave in the morning. He finished packing after the sun came up and headed up to the roof to think through his decision one more time. He was about to go through with it, when Emma came up onto the roof. She tried to tell him that she had sent James away and had forced him to leave the group alone, but he refused to listen to her and left regardless, after bringing up his side of the story and what he had come to understand what had happened. Paul decided to go to back to Portland, Oregon and rebuild his life there. He decided that he didn't want anything more to do with Emma, Carly or Jimmy. If they wanted James back in their lives that was fine by him, but he was gone, that much was for sure. He went to his childhood home and started living their once more. He had a good deal of money saved up, so he decided to start a new lab and base it in Portland. However, before he started on this ambitious goal, he allowed himself a little while to wallow in self pity and self loathing. He tried to do something that had been rather hard, if not impossible for him to do in the past, to get fully drunk. It was something that had always been a goal of his, just to see what the experience was like. he knew what it would do to his body, what it would mean, but it was difference when one actually experienced it, and that was what he wanted. Over the course of the next few days, he attempted it a number of times, each time failing. If anything, he had been increasing his tolerance, even further. Finally, he decided to go all out, doing something that would potentially get him killed. The act wasn't attempted suicide, though to a normal person, it might have been appeared to be as such. He got a decent sized quantity of vodka and proceeded to drink it in the span of one night. He finally got drunk, and experienced something of a hangover, despite his body being able to neutralize the alcohol quickly over time. Paul decided to get out of bed before noon, in order to start purchasing the equipment needed to build a new laboratory in Portland. Food was something that he needed first, so he got to work on that, but was interrupted by someone at his door. Upon answering it, he found Emma standing at his door, having traveled thousands of miles to talk to him, coming from Metropolis. She got inside the house and began to talk to him, but he quickly remembered why she'd had to track him in the first place. Quickly, the conversation devolved into an argument between the two. However, Emma stood her ground, showing him, the piece of evidence that she'd brought with her. James had altered the security records, yes, but he had not changed the secondary backup copies, nor had he changed the security records for the security console itself. During the course of the fight, Paul told her that he wanted her to go back to the Cascade Building without him and to find James. Then he wanted her to make him the CEO of the company and give him the shares that Paul owned. Finally he wanted her to make sure that James married her. Emma obviously refused, and demanded to know why he wanted her to do that. Paul told her that she deserved far better than anything he could give her. He was talking about materialistic things, and she told him flat out that while she wanted to live comfortably, she didn't have any greedy desires to have a large sum of money. Finally the two were able to reconcile. They spent the rest of the day being intimate. The next morning, when Emma woke, Paul was gone. He knew that he loved her and he knew that it was possible that he was taking a step too far, but he also knew that it was something that he needed to do now before he ever let anything else like what had happened stop him. He couldn't afford to make another mistake like that because it was possible that she would leave him and not actually be willing to come back. After her shower, Emma saw that he'd left her a message on the bathroom mirror. He'd gone out on a few errands. While she was eating breakfast he came back. They talked for a few moments, and when she looked away from him, he placed a small box on the kitchen counter next to her. When she turned back, she was surprised to see the box there. Opening it, she was shocked to find an engagement ring. And not just any engagement ring at that. It was a family heirloom, passed down to the men of the Matthews family to give to their fiance's when the time came. Paul asked her to marry him, something that she'd wanted ever since she'd met him. Emma said yes. The two of them returned to the Cascade Building to share the news with the rest of the group. Byo-products Information Coming Soon , the Fantastics]] Relationships Emma Matthews Information Coming Soon Powers Mr. Fantastic's body was altered during the accident that created the Fantastic Five. Due to this, he gained considerable powers. Limitations/Vulnerabilities Paul is vulnerable to types of energy weapons, and even to taffy-puller-style machines that forcibly stretch him to the limits of his tensile durability eventually causing physical pain, as well as the temporary loss of his solid state due to the mental stress. He has also shown to have all the weaknesses of rubber, he melts and weakens when exposed to extreme heat and will freeze and crack when exposed to supercool temperatures. Another limitation, is that while he has the ability to fight, he is not that well trained. He can put up a fight against normal street thugs or even low level martial artists, but he wouldn't be able to fight someone like Patriot or Daredevil. He would never dream of fighting someone like Batman, though he once sparred against Isaiah Muir, not knowing that the man was Batman, losing in a matter of seconds. It was a humbling learning experience for Matthews, but the meeting was successful in other ways. Abilities *'Scientific Genius-level Intellect:' Mr. Fantastic's strength is in his elasticity. But probably the most powerful thing in his arsenal is his mind. Already above the level of ninety six percent of the rest of the world, the flare that gave the Fantastic Five and Doom their powers increased his intellect exponentially. Paul Matthews is the most intelligent being on the planet. Paul possesses a mastery of electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering, electronics, chemistry, all levels of physics, and human and alien biology. A visionary theoretician and inspired machine smith, he has made breakthroughs in such varied fields as space travel, time travel, extra-dimensional travel, biochemistry, robotics, computers, synthetic polymers, communications, mutations, transportation, holography, energy generation, spectral analysis and more. He is one of the few people on Earth to be an expert on other dimensions and the methods by which to travel to and through them. Matthews’ patents are so valuable that he is able to bankroll the Fantastic Research Inc., without any undue financial stress. Not only has Matthews proven himself to be a genius in virtually every science native to Earth, he has shown himself to be more knowledgeable than even some of the most highly advanced alien civilizations in the known universe as well. *'Genius-level Computer Expert:' Mr. Fantastic is an expert in the field of computer science, demonstrating genius-level aptitude for programming, modifying, and diagnosing almost any computer system, even those of unfamiliar human and extraterrestrial origin. *'Multi-lingual:' Mr. Fantastic is fluent in a huge number of languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Hindi as well as a large number of the dialects of the different languages. Learning new languages is exceptionally easy for him, but he doesn't bother with it a lot of the time, opting for translators built into his suit. The pursuit of languages has since he was thirteen, bored him, so he doesn't bother with it anymore. *'Tactical Training:' Mr. Fantastic is a skilled strategist and is the tactician of the Fantastic Five. He comes up with most of their strategies in battle, though he has worked with Jimmy Stevens to increase the younger man's understanding of tactics and strategy. *'Business Sense:' Mr. Fantastic is also a talented businessman whose wealth ranks him in the middle to high part of the Fortune 500 list. Various deals and corporate alliances help the Fantastic Five stay in the black with no effort at all. While he and his family and the Fantastic Research Inc. company would be much more wealthy than they already are, the company deals almost exclusively with the research side of things and leaves the commercial application of their designs and ideas to other companies, though by purchasing General Electronics LTD, they have increased their manufacturing capabilities. Trivia Paul Matthews' favorite cereal is Frosted Flakes Threads A list of past and present threads in which Paul has been present or made an appearance. Present Threads *FF: The Future is Now Past Threads *Fantastic Five: Fantastic Once More *Black Roses II: Deconstruction *Fire Flame: The First Song Category:Characters (WH)Category: Males (WH)Category:HeroesCategory: MirrodinCategory: Fantastic FiveCategory: Mirrodin (WoH)